prosperous age

Chapter 1165 Chapter 1256 Arrangement
Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde had inadvertently revealed a lot of information during their conversations with the two empresses dowagers, leaving the last cabinet minister, Zhang Siwei, stunned.

In order to pacify Burma, what kind of rituals does the Ministry of Rites need to prepare?
The key point is that they repeatedly mentioned completely pacifying Myanmar in their conversation. What does this mean?
Not knowing the inside story, Zhang Siwei simply shut up and listened to their conversation quietly.

"Then Li Chengliang is now the Left Commander-in-Chief."

Empress Dowager Chen asked again. She was just thinking about this. Li Chengliang's position as the Left General was actually the highest position among the military commanders of the Ming Dynasty.

Feng Bao had mentioned it vaguely before that Wei Guangde promised that if Li Chengliang pacified Burma and incorporated it into the territory of the Ming Dynasty, he would recommend him to become a noble.

What is a noble? Of course, only those with a title can be considered noble.

If it is just a hereditary military position, even if you are given a command, you still cannot be considered a noble.

There were many hereditary commanders in the Ming Dynasty. Qi Jiguang's family inherited the title of hereditary commander, but he was not considered a nobleman.

Empress Dowager Chen understood the gap. Thinking that the court still needed Li Chengliang's efforts in Myanmar, she glanced at Empress Dowager Li who was still excited, and then looked at the young Emperor Zhu Yijun, who was still a little confused.

He could understand that Myanmar had won the war, but wasn’t this normal?
If the Ming Dynasty couldn't even defeat Myanmar, then Li Chengliang would be guilty of a thousand crimes and deserve to be put to death.

As for Myanmar's abolition of the original Xuanweisi system and the establishment of provinces directly governed by the imperial court, he did not think it mattered.

Thinking about compiling the Veritable Records in the future, which will record that during the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty continued to expand its territory and accomplished great achievements in pacifying the world, Zhu Yijun's name may become the only one in the history of the Ming Dynasty, second only to Taizu and Chengzu.

Empress Dowager Chen finally made up her mind and said, "Wei Ci Fu."

At this time, Wei Guangde was standing in the hall, with his waist slightly bent, still waiting for instructions from Empress Dowager Chen.

Hearing Empress Dowager Chen's cry, he hurriedly bent down again.

"Tell Li Chengliang a message. If the Burmese affairs are handled well, I will approve your promise."

"I will bring Li Chengliang to thank the queen for her grace."

Hearing what Empress Dowager Chen said, Wei Guangde immediately bowed and said.

Empress Dowager Li, Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde in the room naturally knew what this meant, and Feng Bao on the side also knew what it meant.

Wei Guangde only promised to recommend, but the final decision on whether it would work was actually made by Empress Dowager Chen.

As the Empress of the Longqing Dynasty, her decrees were naturally the most authoritative, even more so than the decrees of the Wanli Emperor's own mother, Empress Dowager Li.

She promised to confer a title on Li Chengliang, and as long as Myanmar was safely incorporated into the Ming province, his title would be a sure thing.

Even if it was a lifelong title, it was a remarkable thing in the Ming Dynasty.

Apart from relatives by marriage, the Ming Dynasty has not conferred titles for many years.

The most recent title was the one bestowed upon Wang Yangming in the early years of the Jiajing reign for suppressing the rebellion of Prince Ning.

But in fact, Emperor Jiajing conferred the title just as a gesture to clean up the bad policies of the previous dynasty.

The truth is that in the 14th year of Zhengde, Prince Ning rebelled, and Emperor Wuzong promised that the ministers who could quell the rebellion would be granted the title of Marquis.

Wang Yangming did it, but Emperor Zhengde did not fulfill his promise to confer the title on Wang Yangming.

Although Emperor Jiajing conferred a title on Wang Yangming, he did not actually recognize it.

In fact, Wang Yangming's title not only did not help his official career, but almost ruined it.

After this, Emperor Jiajing not only did not continue to confer titles, but instead tightened the issuance of titles to relatives by marriage.

During the reign of Emperor Jiajing, in order to eliminate foreign relatives and treacherous ministers, he took back some of the titles of the previous dynasty, carried out a major reorganization of the titles, and struck a blow to the power of powerful ministers.

For example, Duke of Changguo Zhang Heling was one of those who were stripped of his title. Later, Emperor Jiajing required that the titles of relatives by marriage should not be inherited. The same applied to the families of his mother and the empress. They could be conferred titles but they could not be inherited.

According to the Ming Dynasty system, "No noble title can be conferred without meritorious service to the country, and no title can be granted without special permission."

There are two kinds of titles: one is granted for life, and the other can be inherited. Whether it is hereditary or not depends on the size of the military merit, and both are given imperial edicts.

Hereditary titles awarded for military merit can only be passed on to physically healthy descendants. For example, the eldest son of Dingxing King Zhang Fu could not inherit the title of Duke of Yingzhou because of his lame legs. Therefore, the title of Duke of Yingzhou could only be passed on to his illegitimate son, Ningyang King Zhang Mao, who was awarded the title in his old age.

Apart from those with military merit, the only ones who could be granted the title were the descendants of Confucius in Qufu, such as Duke Yansheng, and the empress (including the empress dowager and the grand empress dowager), father, brother, or prince consort, who were granted the title by virtue of grace. However, they were only given an edict and not a certificate.

Although Empress Dowager Chen did not say what title was given to Li Chengliang, Wei Guangde could guess that it was probably a lifelong title, or a temporary title, unless he could continue to expand the territory for the Ming Dynasty.

After taking over Myanmar, can he continue to expand his territory there?

Southeast Asia seemed to be a country that Emperor Taizu did not conquer, and he continued to move westward.
Wei Guangde immediately gave up this idea. The Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to continue expanding unless it truly enfeoffed vassal kings and handed over local ruling power to them.

Due to the current communication technology, the Ming Dynasty was unable to manage places that were too remote.

After Chen Sheng and Wu Guang shouted "Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers born into a certain class?", the Chinese people have actually lost the concept of class in their bones.

Although the rulers have always wanted to strengthen the hierarchy, in reality, whenever they are out of reach, it often turns into civil strife.

This is very different from the relatively stable class system in the West, where the aristocracy can be passed down for countless generations, even to later generations.

But this is not the case in China, as there is no longer any soil for the feudal hierarchy.

The current territory of the Ming Dynasty is the largest territory that can be ruled in this era.

After the three cabinet members came out of Ciqing Palace, they returned to the cabinet in silence.

Zhang Siwei was able to hold back and didn't ask a single question after leaving the palace.

"Shan Dai, do you think we should call the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Rites to discuss this matter so that they can make preparations early?"

After entering the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng began to ask.

Hearing this, Wei Guangde thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "It's time to tell Minister Ma and Minister Tan about this."

"Tan Zili doesn't know either?"

Zhang Juzheng asked in surprise.

“I said all this when I was discussing the Burmese affairs with Li Chengliang, and the Ministry of War was not aware of it.

This matter is of great importance. If the overall situation in Myanmar had not been determined, I would not have said this easily.

If the news gets out and the court fails to realize it, it will have a huge impact on the court's prestige.

Now that the Burmese king and his son have been captured, there is some hope for this matter.”

Wei Guangde answered.

"Ziwei, send a note to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Rites, asking them to come over."

Zhang Juzheng turned around and said something to Zhang Siwei, then pulled Wei Guangde into the duty room.

"Shandai, you need to explain to me clearly what you think about Myanmar.

I only gave you a rough outline last night, and I think you and Li Chengliang should have a rough plan for the various departments in Burma."

After entering the duty room, Zhang Juzheng immediately asked.

Don’t think that it was easy for the Ming army to occupy Myanmar and set up a province to govern it. Annan is a precedent.

During the reign of Emperor Chengzu, prefectures and counties were established in Annan and officials were sent to govern it, but in the end the Ming army had to withdraw.

The impact of this incident is actually quite large, especially for the vassal states in Southeast Asia.

When Wei Guangde heard Zhang Juzheng asking, he no longer concealed it.

Last night I just wanted to blow some steam and get some advance notice, but I didn't expect that the good news from Burma would reach the capital the next day.

The result was much better than he expected.

Although his contact with Li Chengliang gave him a better understanding of Myanmar, the general situation in Myanmar is similar to the strategy they had previously set, so they could try to adopt it. So Wei Guangde said: "According to the details of Myanmar, Myanmar can be roughly divided into two parts, north and south.

The southern part of Myanmar is densely populated and has a strong economy, and is considered the main body of Myanmar's rule.

Northern Myanmar was previously divided into several Xuanweisi because the area was mountainous and densely forested, making it inconvenient for a large army to attack. This was why the Duke of Qian chose to withdraw.

According to the previous arrangement, several Xuanwei Si could have checked and balanced each other to ensure that the court's policies were implemented. Unfortunately, the court made too many mistakes in Burmese affairs over the years, which led to their disunity.

Afterwards, Li Chengliang and I discussed and agreed that the best strategy was to have Burma rule Burma.

Simply put, it is to take advantage of the complicated relationships between the various tribes in southern and northern Myanmar, divide them up, and stir up hatred among them, so that the Ming Dynasty can reap the benefits.

Wei Guangde explained the initial general idea. In fact, this was also the strategy adopted by the British in their colonies around the country. They would use one faction to fight against another, and finally the two factions would become mortal enemies, while the British would stay out of it.

Not only that, in order to gain the upper hand in the fight, both factions had to find ways to please them and hope to gain their support.

After listening to Wei Guangde's story, Zhang Juzheng remained silent, and quickly deduced the situation in his mind.

It has to be said that this method seems to be the best way to govern foreign races.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

If this can be done, the people in the north and south of Myanmar will hate each other, and the Ming Dynasty will be superior and rule over them.

At some point, Zhang Siwei had already walked into the duty room.

Seeing that both of them remained silent, he didn't feel comfortable speaking and just sat quietly in an empty seat nearby.

After a while, he came to his senses and glanced at Zhang Siwei before saying to Wei Guangde, "If this method is used well, it will be a great benefit.

It seems that it is not enough to just keep Li Chengliang in Burma.”

"What advice do you have for me, uncle?"

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng and asked.

“Are you going to have a governor or a viceroy in Burma?

Or maybe it's the Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office?"

Zhang Juzheng asked.

Wei Guangde understood that Li Chengliang was only a military general after all, and the Ming Dynasty still needed a civilian official to take charge of local governance.

Even if Burma was unwilling to give up its governor-general, although Li Chengliang's official position in Burma was higher than that of the governor, the Three Departments were the yamen that actually controlled Burma, and the only one Li Chengliang could actually command was the Burmese Dusi.

Wei Guangde lowered his head and thought about it. He had actually forgotten this. The Ming Dynasty had always suppressed the military with civil officials, but Li Chengliang was afraid that the civil officials would do bad things over there.

It seems that we have to choose a sensible person to serve as an official there.

The two men fell silent again, but Zhang Siwei on the side heard it clearly. He had understood the whole thing and knew the meaning of the conversation in Ciqing Palace beforehand.

The Ming Dynasty wanted to actually control Myanmar instead of indirectly controlling it through the Xuanwei Office.

It turned out that what they were discussing was to expand the territory for the Ming Dynasty.

Although Myanmar had nominally been incorporated into the Ming territory for a long time, in reality the Ming had never actually ruled there and it was more like a vassal state.

The imperial court could issue decrees to the envoys, but they often disobeyed orders and the imperial court was powerless to do anything about it.

As for asking the Yunnan government to punish, it is just talk. Unless they send troops, they can do nothing but reprimand.

A civil servant should be arranged in Myanmar to assist Li Chengliang in guarding Myanmar.

Zhang Siwei's heart moved. It seemed that Zhang Wei and others had not yet chosen this person.

Could he recommend one?

When Zhang Siwei thought of this, he suddenly felt a burning sensation in his heart.

As long as he can send his people to Myanmar and govern Myanmar successfully, he will also have made a contribution.

However, just when Zhang Siwei was racking his brains to find a suitable candidate, an idea suddenly came to his mind.

Few governors of Yunnan are willing to go to Myanmar on their own initiative. If he really recommends someone around him to go there, he might just make enemies.

Others failed to bribe him and thought they had offended him, so they were exiled by him.

It is difficult to recommend this official in Myanmar.

Thinking of this, Zhang Siwei instantly gave up the idea.

It’s better not to be this evil person.

Anyway, although their idea was good, if we think about Annan, we will know how difficult it is to bring Myanmar, which has never been influenced by the saints, under the control of the Ming Dynasty.

If you succeed, your name will be remembered forever, but what if you fail?
Zhang Siwei chose to remain silent. He didn't know about it from the beginning anyway, so he might as well remain ignorant of it until the end.

It works, he as a cabinet minister also made a contribution, although it is a small one.

If he loses, it seems like a good opportunity to attack Wei Guangde.

"In fact, Yin Yangshi is a good candidate."

At this moment, Zhang Juzheng suddenly sighed and said.

Zhang Juzheng thought of Yin Zhengmao again, not because Yin Zhengmao was his man, but because Zhang Juzheng really valued Yin Zhengmao's talents.

There were really not many officials in the Ming Dynasty court who were both capable of literature and martial arts.

However, he had already planned to let Yin Zhengmao come to the capital to take over the position of Minister of Revenue.

If Yin Zhengmao were allowed to go to Burma, he would have to be at least the governor-general, which would match his current position as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing.

In fact, even so, he was still somewhat unfair.

After all, it is obvious which is better between the official positions of the six ministries and the position of governor.

"Yangshi is over 60 years old. Even if he wants to go, I dare not arrange for him to go there."

When Wei Guangde heard Zhang Juzheng mention Yin Zhengmao, he dismissed it in just a moment.

It’s not about ability, it’s about age.

To go to Myanmar, you must be around 50 years old. Don’t be too old and die in office.

“If there is no suitable candidate for the time being, I would like to suggest that Yunnan Censor Luo Rufang be appointed as the Burmese Censor.

He has been in Yunnan for many years, so I think it would be applicable to him in Myanmar as well.”

Wei Guangde did not consider the candidates for governor or governor-general, but instead arranged the Burmese Censorate first.

"Luo Rufang, yes, he was the logistics officer in this battle, so he deserves to be rewarded."

Zhang Juzheng hesitated for a moment and then nodded in agreement, "Let the commander ask Li Chengliang to recommend him. This will also help him in Burma."

"Whom should the governor send?"

Wei Guangde raised another question: we need someone who can clean up the mess, but it is actually not easy to find such a candidate.

If the imperial court does not elect a governor or a provincial governor, then the provincial governor will be the head of the local civil servants.

In fact, Wei Guangde already had a rough idea at this moment. He just needed to arrange a provincial governor and then upgrade the Governor of Yunnan to the Governor-General of Yunnan and Myanmar.

With this arrangement, Li Chengliang had no one to command him in Myanmar, and the Governor-General of Yunnan and Myanmar was stationed in Kunming.